Verification Process and Understanding Your To-Do List

Verification Process and Understanding Your To Do list

Selected for Verification?

If you are selected for verification, you are not alone! About 30% of all FAFSA filers are selected for the verification process, which requires the school to collect documentation to check the accuracy of the FAFSA information.

If you are selected for verification, there will be an asterisk next to your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) on your Student Aid Report (SAR). You will also be informed in the SAR acknowledgement letter, which will be included with your SAR documents.

You will be notified by email to your Cal Poly email address if you are selected for verification. If you have your emails forwarded to a personal email address, our emails may not always forward automatically. Be sure to add our address to your safe sender list to ensure they do not go into the junk mail folder.

Once you are selected for verification, our office will add the requirements to your To Do list in BroncoDirect.

Your To Do List may contain items that you will need to complete before financial aid can be awarded. Incomplete forms will cause a delay in the awarding process.

Students receiving financial aid should regularly check their To Do List. Failure to submit the items requested will delay your financial aid from being processed. As a result, your financial aid may not be posted on your account before the fee payment deadline.

Incomplete forms will cause a delay in the awarding process.

Processing Time: Please allow 10 – 14 business days for submitted items to be reviewed, approved and removed from your To Do List OR for the item status to change.

If you submitted a document that was requested on your To Do List and that particular item is removed from your To Do List, it means that the requested item has been received and it will be processed.

If you submitted a document that was requested on your To Do List and now the status has changed, please click the "details" link located on your To Do List then select the item name to view the document's status and proceed accordingly.

Following is a list of the To Do List items statuses and the definitions, as it relates to your record:

“Initiated”You are responsible for providing documentation or taking required action on all your To Do items with a status of "initiated." Click on the item name for further instructions.

“Notified” You have submitted an incomplete document. Our office has notified you by sending a detailed email to your Cal Poly Pomona email address, explaining the error.

“2nd Notification” You have submitted another incomplete document or the same document with a new error. Our office has notified you by sending a detailed email to your Cal Poly Pomona email address, explaining the error.

Example of the "To Do List" located within your Student Center on BroncoDirect

Log onto your Student Center in BroncoDirect and check your To Do list for the items required. You can click on each item in your To Dolist for more information and links to each item.

Verifications forms can be found on our website, or by clicking on the more link on your To Do list.

If your To Do list shows that we are requesting IRS Tax Return Transcripts, the best action you can take to help finish verification is to use the IRS data retrieval tool to automatically populate your and your parents’ (if you are a dependent student) tax information directly from the IRS into your FAFSA. Just log into your FAFSA and make a correction to use the IRS data retrieval tool (DRT). The DRT will allow you to link to the IRS from the FAFSA and retrieve the tax information to populate the FAFSA tax questions. If you choose to use the DRT, it will be removed from your To Do list about 2 to 3 weeks after you correct and resubmit your FAFSA.

Some students and/or parents will be ineligible or will choose not to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT). In these cases, only the signed tax return transcript will be accepted as documentation to verify tax information. The tax return transcript must be requested directly from the IRS by calling 1-800-908-9946 or visiting the IRS website. Be sure to request the tax return transcript, and not the tax account transcript. We cannot accept 1040 Tax Returns to verify tax information.

Once verification begins, you may be asked to submit additional documentation.

If this occurs, an email will be sent to the student’s Cal Poly email account and any additional requirements will be added to your To Do list in BroncoDirect. It is your responsibility to check your requirements and submit all documentation by the due date listed on your To Do list in BroncoDirect.